Celluloid Salutations

by Elizabeth Block

It's all love, work, child. And the writing. Mainly the writing. It takes over all these other things and yet it is built out of all these things. This is how Elizabeth Block erases Elizabeth Block, as one poem claims. She does this automatically, animalistically, while wailing forward, gracefully and with improvisation. —Juliana Spahr Elizabeth Block’s poetry moves through those “layers of noise” we all contend with and goes a long way toward conquering by absorbing them. Page by page, the intervals, apparent blanks and interruptions between word clusters, vibrate tellingly with each tabulation of event, the actuality in and of the words as Block arranges them. Here is urgency and nuance. The matter never gets figured out we want it to we think all day long on. Take time to read this magnetic book. ––Bill Berkson Elizabeth Block never forgets the past. No, she turns it, disturbs it, upsets it---creating a series of cascading images that make Celluloid Salutations overflow with seething energy. These are slinky, evocative works that throw you everything but expect you to catch what you want. There's enough space here to drive a spaceship through, and Block is both pilot and stargazer, photographer and disappearing artist. —Davis Schneiderman

142 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2013

About the author

Elizabeth Block is an award-winning writer of fiction, poetry, and essays. Her first novel, A Gesture Through Time, was published in late 2005. Her writing in multiple genres has been published in internationally distributed and limited edition print and electronic journals, in newspapers, on the radio, on audio CD, and has been performed live. Also a filmmaker, Elizabeth’s films have toured extensively in festivals, museums, and art house cinemas. Elizabeth (because she cannot help herself) has been known to collaborate with curators, designers, and artists in many
media-ideas.